Ellicott high jumper Jacob Crist is one of a long list of athletes who will be competing for the final time in their school's traditional league meets before moving on to new leagues next year. Colorado Track XC file photo.
It's league meet week, which means everyone in the state is down to one last opportunity to qualify. And, truth be told, a few are down to zero opportunities. There are a number of students taking AP exams this week who will miss all or part of their league meets. For those among them who currently hold top-18 spots, we wish them well in their dreams of holding onto those slots. But, it's also hard to root against those who lay it all on the track for one last opportunity. Such are the mixed emotions of league meet week.
| 05/06 |
Elizabeth, Englewood, Skyview, Vista Peak, Weld Central, and Fort Lupton make the trip to Fort Morgan. The Mustangs get to stay home and defend home turf.
Fort Morgan High School
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Fort Morgan, CO |
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05/06 - 05/08 |
Prairie View hosts visitors from Brighton, Aurora Central, Rangeview, Hinkley, Gateway, Northglenn, Adams City, Thornton, and Westminster. And a lot of eyes are on the schools out of Aurora which have shown considerable life this season after a period of several years in the doldrums.
Prairie View High School
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Henderson, CO |
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05/06 - 05/09 |
Front Range League Championships This one is always big. Places on the All-Conference wall at Fort Collins High School are at stake here, after all. Joining Ft. Collins are Poudre, Rocky Mountain, Fossil Ridge, Boulder, Fairview, Monarch, Greeley West, Horizon, Mountain Range, and Loveland. I note that Swallows Charter Academy is on the list of schools with entries, but I'm pretty sure that's a case of a mistaken click somewhere. I say that, however, that I erroneously came to just about the same conclusion last year when Valor Christian ended up in the Intermountain League meet.
Mountain Range High School
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Westminster, CO |
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05/06 - 05/10 |
To think of it, if you were a Jeffco School, you could run an entire season of meets and never leave the friendly confines of Jeffco Stadium. I'm pretty sure, however, that if I was a Jeffco coach, I'd be looking for an occasional trip outside the walls. In any case, it's a largish meet that includes (and I'm doing this from memory rather than a list, so feel free to help my memory if I miss any schools) Ralston Valley, Standley Lake, Arvada, Arvada West, Pomona, Lakewood, Alameda International, Wheat Ridge, Golden, Green Mountain, D'Evelyn, Bear Creek, Dakota Ridge, Chatfield, and Columbine. I believe Jefferson Academy is properly a Jeffco school, but living life in a different league. That would leave Jefferson, which I'm pretty sure is in 3A if they're still running track at this point in the season. |
Lakewood, CO |
| 05/06 |
North Central League JH/HS Meet Sterling isn't in the North Central League, but they do have the virtue of having a facility. Not missing out on an opportunity to take a trip into town are Fleming, Prairie, Briggsdale, Weldon Valley, Pawnee, and Peetz.
Prairie High School
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Sterling, CO |
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05/07 - 05/09 |
The 3A Metro bids a double farewell to Holy Family and Holy Family's facility. There's at least one more significant farewell taking place at this meet, but I'm not sure it's my place to speak about it. In any case, Holy Family looks like a good bet to take home one last league title in their old familiar league. Remember when this league included Denver Christian, Denver Lutheran, and wasn't Mapleton also once a part of this league? How times have changed.
Holy Family High School
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Broomfield, CO |
| 05/07 |
Northern/Tri-Valley Conference Championships Only a few facilities in the state could do justice to this combined league meet and Longmont's is one of those facilities. The Northern League bids farewell to Broomfield at this one. Joining in the festivities are Northridge, Greeley Central, Roosevelt, Windsor, Berthoud, Longmont, Erie, Frederick, Silver Creek, Niwot, Skyline, Centaurus, Mead, Mountain View, and Thompson Valley. With a lot of state entries already in the bank for these programs, there are a lot of questions about just who will we will see in which events at this meet. No person/event question looms larger, however, than Elise Cranny in the 1600. Cranny is qualified for state in the 800 and 3200, but not in the 1600. What will the day bring? If she does run, she enters without a seed mark. Even relegating Cranny to the first heat, however, is unlikely to deter anything if she runs.
Longmont High School
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Longmont, CO |
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05/07 - 05/08 |
Vista Ridge hosts district rivals Falcon and Sand Creek, plus Lewis-Palmer, Discovery Canyon, Air Academy, Cheyenne Mountain, and the 4A thousand-pound gorilla, Palmer Ridge.
Vista Ridge High School
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Colorado Springs, CO |
| 05/08 |
4A/5A Colorado Springs Metro League Meet This meet is much smaller since the PPAC jettisoned from the CS Metro, but it still includes Fountain-Fort Carson, Widefield, Mesa Ridge, Sierra, Harrison, Mitchell, Palmer, Coronado, Doherty, Woodland Park, Liberty, Rampart, and Pine Creek. There's some serious talent to be found among these schools and some of that talent has some securing of state-qualifying positions to take care of. |
Colorado Springs, CO |
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05/08 - 05/10 |
Centennial League Varsity Championships It's a rough-and-tumble league of several of the best track and field programs, both current and historical, in Colorado. That would include Arapahoe, Cherry Creek, Eaglecrest, Cherokee Trail, Overland, Smoky Hill, Grandview, and 4A Mullen.
Cherokee Trail High School
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Greenwood Village, CO |
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05/08 - 05/10 |
Continental League Championships The Continental League is the new and burgeoning power on the south end of the Denver Metro area, including Heritage, Littleton (but not for long), Mountain Vista, ThunderRidge, Rock Canyon, Regis Jesuit, Chaparral, 4A Ponderosa, Highlands Ranch, Legend, Castle View, and Douglas County. Together they converge on Sports Authority Stadium, home to the largest expanse of field turf know to mankind.
Chaparral High School
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Parker, CO |
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05/08 - 05/10 |
South Central League / Santa Fe League Dutch Clark hosts a big league meet and a small league meet. But, together, they provide nice recovery periods for each other. The list of schools would include La Veta, Primero, Hoehne, John Mall, Swink, Crowley County, Fowler, Rye, Las Animas, Pueblo West, P Central, P East, P County, P Central, P Centennial, and Canon City. This will be Canon City's last trip to the South-Central League meet. The SCL has bled Trinidad, Alamosa, La Junta, and now Canon City in not-too-distant memory.
Pueblo Centennial High School
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Pueblo, CO |
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05/09 - 05/10 |
All-City Stadium hosts Denver West, D North, D South, D East, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy, and Abraham Lincoln. In case you'd not noticed before, it's a league of directions and presidents. I can think of two only schools in the state with brown as one of their colors. Thomas Jefferson is one of those schools. What is the other (or fill me in if there are more)? |
Denver, CO |
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05/09 - 05/10 |
From Middle Park to Bennett, and lots of places (sort of) in between, this makes up one of the most geographically diverse leagues in the state. Clear Creek is more or less in the middle and gets to play host this year.
Clear Creek High School
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Evergreen, CO |
| 05/09 |
This is a rising power among leagues, and that changes little next year when Lyons and Highland are added to the mix. For now, the league includes Heritage Christian Academy, Alexander Dawson (trackless, I believe), Nederland, Resurrection Christian, Liberty Common, Denver Academy, Dayspring, and Twin Peaks Charter. If you noticed a nice collection of track and field talent there, you've been paying attention this spring.
Nederland High School
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Nederland, CO |
| 05/09 |
It's an old and venerable league and about to lose Lyons and Highland to the aforementioned Mile High League. Sticking around will be Valley, Platte Valley, Eaton, University, Frontier Academy, Brush, Sterling, Estes Park, and Strasburg. And there's plenty there to make for a very exciting league meet. All the more so as numerous athletes jockey for spots in the top 18.
Highland High School
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Ault, CO |
| 05/09 |
Not to be confused with the Tri-Peaks League (though it often is), this meet comprises the small schools of southeastern Colorado (which is almost an oxymoron)--Eads, Granada, Kit Carson, Holly, McClave, South Baca, Springfield, Walsh, Wiley, Karval, Cheraw, Plainview, and Kim. I can proudly say I've been to every last one of those places. And more than just driving through, though I've done that a couple of times, too. A few of the more interesting stories of my life took place in a couple of those places, but those are tales for another time.
Springfield High School
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Holly, CO |
| 05/09 |
The Classical Academy bids farewell to the Tri-Peaks League at this one. For the sake of my distance runners, I kind of wish we were back in La Junta, but Salida is a very nice place to visit, and we will make the best of it. Also joining in the fun are Lamar, Trinidad, Florence, Dolores Huerta, Fountain Valley, James Irwin, Manitou, CSCS, St. Mary's, Buena Vista, and Ellicott (soon to be departed to the Black Forest League, and this despite the fact that the Black Forest most decidedly does not extend to Ellicott).
Salida High School
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Salida, CO |
| 05/09 |
Limon annually hosts this one, drawing Byers, Burlington, Flagler, Genoa-Hugo, Stratton, and Deer Trail. Once thriving Eastern Plains communities all, several of these locales are now struggling to hold onto track teams, and other things as well.
Limon High School
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Limon, CO |
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05/09 - 05/10 |
Western Slope Multi-Leagues Meet Way too many schools to list here. They're all aiming at Stocker Stadium in Grand Junction where they've already started using the timing device of the future (and it's a near future, folks) that emits electronic beeps rather than firing blanks out of a pistol. Several of these schools come from higher elevation and are hoping the famous Grand Junction heat can hold off a few more days.
Grand Junction High School
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Grand Junction, CO |
| 05/10 |
The BFL bids farewell to Vanguard at this one. The Coursers will try to take the place of both Ellicott and TCA in the Tri-Peaks League next year. Doing the bidding are Peyton, Calhan, Simla, Kiowa, Elbert, Edison, Hanover, Miami-Yoder, and Pikes Peak Christian, As was noted above with respect to Ellicott, this league covers a lot of territory where the closest thing to a forest is three or four mullein spikes growing on the same acre.
Elbert High School
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Elbert, CO |
| 05/10 |
Intermountain/Southern Peaks League Meet All of the San Luis Valley, plus Lake City, Pagosa, Bayfield, and Creede come into Alamosa for this one. It's a tough place for distance runners to qualify without an altitude adjustment, but such are the challenges of track and field here in Colorado.
Alamosa High School
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Alamosa, CO |
| 05/10 |
LPAA/YWKC League Championships And, finally, we reach the northeast corner of the state, where you find schools like Holyoke, Otis, Sedgwick County, Yuma, Wray, Bethune, Caliche, Hi-Plains, Wiggins, Haxtun, Akron, Idalia, Lone Star, and Merino greet their students. It's a region absolutely rich in track and field legacy and increasingly poor in students to occupy their hallways.
Holyoke High School
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Holyoke, CO |
We'll post results here as we get them, but don't get too excited about seeing anything before Saturday unless CHSAA mandates an earlier distribution of league meet results or unless results otherwise bleed their way into media outlets. There's an annual exercise of trying to keep tight security on league meet results that we engage in about this time each year. As for me, I will post results starting on Saturday unless they bleed out into media outlets with online accessibility prior to that time. Coaches and meet directors, you have been warned :-); I'm not the only one around who scans bocopreps, the Loveland Reporter-Herald, the Durango Herald, the Pueblo Chieftain, the Denver Post, MaxPreps, or...
Make sure your timing companies know not to release results if that is how you want things.
Since our league meet is on a Friday, I will start posting as soon as results start arriving on Saturday.